ABSTRACT

The feminist movement has demanded that domestic violence no longer be considered something that women are responsible for, and that rape and sexual assault no longer be viewed as a sex crime with women partly to blame. Feminist campaigners have been concerned with issues of gendered violence for some time and violence against women remains a salient issue for the women's and feminist movements. On the level of practical politics the feminist movement has had to engage with the state to address the problem of gendered and sexual violence. Gendered and sexual violence is a global problem, and with an increasingly diversified Europe and a more globalized world, a wider range of violent practices and behaviours require political, policy and legal attention. Gendered and sexual violence is also notoriously under-reported so official figures derived from police reporting and recording cannot be taken to represent the 'true' levels of violence against women.